Being the travels of Ndeke Luka, the free bird.

The COG

Back into the mountains, we looked for a campground to spend the night and do all our laundry.We found a lovely one called Terrace Pines near Center Ossipee, and acquired a campsite beside the Little Dan Hole Lake.(http://terracepines.com). A beautiful site, which we enjoyed as we completed our three loads of laundry.

The is the type of picture that they always used to use to sell Blazers, Broncos, and Jeeps!

The campground covers 600 acres and it was a (really!) long hike to the laundry area, we had plenty of exercise!Our view reminds of a song Denise sang as a Girl Guide in the UK;

“Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver,
Where too the mighty moose, wanders at will.
Blue lakes and rocky shore, I will return once more
(Drum noises, etc) .… ”

We were warned about the bears and there are moose around but we have not seen either!But we have seen lots of tiny red squirrels (smaller than the DC ones) and chipmunks and the Blue Cat had many meaningful conversations with the squirrels.That is, they hurled deprecations at him from a safe distance up a tree!

As the Cog is part of Harvest Hosts, we had arranged to spend the night in their RV Car park, which turned out to be a huge area so we had no difficulty finding a space.

The Cog bills itself as the first of its kind, but the folks at Cadillac Mountain in Acadia will tell you that the first actual cog track was actually taken from a smaller such railway built up Cadillac Mountain.

Early the next morning, we gathered our warm clothes and presented ourselves for the ride in what looked to be good weather.

Obligatory Tourist Shot

The ride up was lots of fun but it got cooler and cooler until we arrived at the summit with a temperature of 40F and a windspeed of 40 mph, which equates to a wind chill temperature of about freezing.Boy was it cold!It was even colder than that! We headed for the snack bar and found hot chocolate and a snack or two, both much needed.We braved the elements for some photos and to watch the end of the road race up the Mt. Washington Road.We could not believe the runners who had run up the mountain in running shorts and shirts in those temperatures.Once their time was clocked in, they could be seen huddled in purple blankets.We slowly warmed up as we descended and returned to the 917 for a much needed thaw out and lunch.